TPM's take on the Christie scandals.

[Statistikhengst]

Well, That Escalated Quickly

Bottom line: Christie is knee-deep in shit.

...This morning on his MSNBC show Steve Kornacki discussed reporting he and I (and producer Jack Bohrer) did showing that those federal Hurricane Sandy funds have not been monitored by the Christie Administration as required by a law that Christie himself signed last March. Furthermore, relief funds have been extremely hard to account for because Christie vetoed a bill that would have created a single website to track Sandy funding and contract information. Based on the reactions of two congressmen who watched the report with me, officials in Washington will be loath to trust Christie with the next round of federal funds and we should not be surprised if an investigation is on the horizon.

On the home-state political front, Christie is facing a Monday Feb. 3 deadline when subpoenas issued to members of his senior staff and campaign are due to be answered in Trenton as a part of the New Jersey legislature’s investigation into lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last September.

Those lane closures were how this entire story began for me. Three weeks ago I found evidence that a billion dollar redevelopment project in Fort Lee might have been targeted by those lane closures. The reason I had looked for that evidence was because, after watching Chris Christie’s marathon press conference, I thought his story didn’t add up. There were many many words spoken over a very long time, but when aggregated into sentences and paragraphs, none of it made sense logically. And the idea that David Wildstein and Bill Baroni coordinated with Christie’s staff and campaign manager to re-allocate lanes on the George Washington Bridge to punish a mayor for not endorsing the governor seemed like disproportionate punishment. There had to be something else going on.

We don’t yet know why those lanes were closed, but on Friday we were reminded that there are people out there who do. One of them may be David Wildstein. And through his lawyer, Wildstein telegraphed that “evidence exists” showing that Christie’s statements on Jan. 9 were false.

The letter was news. Perhaps the New York Times’ headline was too bold. But so what! David Wildstein has already produced evidence showing that the order to close the lanes came from the governor’s office, and that even junior staff in that office were aware that an operation was being run in Fort Lee. We know that Wildstein, Baroni, and Samson were with Christie that week. We know that Bill Stepien, the governor’s re-election campaign manager and onetime deputy chief-of-staff, was aware of the operation and may know the true motive (“win some, lose some,” he said afterward in an email).

In his office’s statement from last night and his subsequent email tonight, Governor Christie alleges that the lane closures were David Wildstein’s idea – tonight he called them “David Wildstein’s scheme.”

That may be true. Perhaps David Wildstein is the guy who came up with the idea of closing lanes one day and then filed it away as an off-the-shelf plan to execute if and when necessary to accomplish a political end.

Yet there’s a reason David Wildstein is seeking legal immunity and reimbursement for his legal bills: the order to close those lanes – the motive – seems to have come from Trenton.

And here we get to the heart of the matter. David Wildstein was put in the Port Authority by Chris Christie, in a job Christie invented, to be the governor’s eyes and ears – his enforcer. Wildstein was put at the Port so Christie could more effectively use the Port as an extension of his political operation (as Steve and I are documenting, more and more, with each passing week).

So spare us the shock that Wildstein is “a political animal.” Christie knew who Wildstein was before he appointed him to this job. There is no sense in distancing yourself from one of your own appointees who was given a job specifically because his skills matched what you were looking to accomplish with that appointment...

Yep, He's Toast

And in saying he's toast, I say this on the assumption that he's innocent. Even with all that, he's done. Here's why.

Start with a good year of very public investigations into BridgeGate, which will put on display for the whole country New Jersey's really sleazy, bossed up politics, which to be clear is that way on a bipartisan basis. As someone trying to cue up a presidential run, it's the death of a thousand cuts.

Then you have the immediate issue that Team Christie's argument, not the charge but their argument, their defense is that a group of close Christie insiders did this petty, vindictive, sleazy thing. Christie just didn't know about it.

That's a tough sell against the quality of your judgment and your qualities as a leader. Again, even if he's totally innocent.

But finally, look at what we have today: Christie either declaring or more like joining war with David Wildstein, something that looks to be no-holds-barred, nasty and to the (political or legal) death. Team Christie is arguing that Wildstein is a lifetime sleaze and liar who would do or so anything to save his own hide (all quite possibly true) ... who Christie appointed to a position of great responsibility at the Port Authority.

Who did this with a key Christie insider.

Again, that's Christie's defense, not the accusation.

But here's the killer for Christie. The 2016 primary is already underway, lining up political professionals, money people, power brokers in key states. That's all happening now and it will continue through this year. Next year, the actual campaign starts. But a lot will have happened by then.

Now, there's lots here to either agree with or disagree with, but one thing remains clear:

both Chris Christie scandals are killing his chances.